Posts Tagged ‘Jeff Samardzija’

The Northwest Indiana Times reported that our old Z-Meter chum Jeff Samardzija – former Notre Dame football star and a short-term Bus Leaguer before his callup to the Cubs last year – has shored up his standing with the team by appearing in the Mexican Fall League.

Samardzija was 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA in five starts with a club known as Mexicali (which makes me think of that corn with the peppers and pimentos in it), which was apparently enough to earn him a long look as a contender for the Cubs’ rotation in 2010.

“He threw well,” [Cubs GM Jim] Hendry said of Samardzija at the GM meetings Tuesday. “His command of his fastball was better. His secondary pitches were better. His command in the strike zone was better — not just throwing strikes, but location in the zone was much better. The slider got better. The (split-fingered fastball) obviously, he got back on track with a little better strike zone command of that, too.”

This is all very interesting news, but this article never told me what I really wanted to know. Considering how much difficulty American announcers have had with Shark’s family name, it would make my day to hear the Spanish interpretation. I’m guessing something in the neighborhood of “Samaryee-yah!!!!”

Odds are, he won’t be back in Mexico any time soon, so we’ll just have to guess.

The Z-meter tracks the story arcs of 25 top prospects (or players we just like) on their way to the bigs. It is named after current Washington Nationals star Ryan Zimmerman, who made the transition from anchoring the University of Virginia to starring in MLB in one year.

Whew! Now we’re talking. Jeff Samardzija bought his first-class ticket out of the Z-meter by notching two saves (so far) for the NL-Central leading Chicago Cubs, who are trying to figure out who should close in the absence of Kerry Wood. I’m replacing him with Futures Game pitcher Trevor Cahill, who is 6-1 for the Midland, TX affiliate of the Oakland As. I also decided to replace Jacob McGee with Tulsa speed merchant Dexter Fowler so I didn’t have to pay royalties to Rays Index. We’ve still got plenty of their fantastic pitching prospects in the rotation.

The other promotion was hot-hitting Kila Kaaihue from Northwest Arkansas to Omaha. Think the Royals like the look of the Hawaiian’s 26 homers in double-A? I wouldn’t be surprised if KC doesn’t call him up for the annual push to get out of the AL Central basement.

In general, when a player gets called up to the bigs from now on, he’ll be replaced with someone in A or AA on the meter. That way, we can start getting a look at guys who might still be here for next year’s edition, instead of those who will be in the majors in September.

Let’s see who else is hot this week:

The top level. These prospects are in AAA in the prime of their youth, and ready for the call that will change their lives.

Who knew that the Discovery Channel cared as much about Jeff “Shark” Samardzija’s call-up to the Cubs as we do? Of course, he did help the long-suffering Cubbies grab first place in the NL Central outright, which is a pretty big deal.

It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for, baseball fans. Jeff Samardzija is a Chicago Cub.

Well, maybe “all” is a bit of an overstatement. For some reason, though, I get the feeling that Extra P is really excited about this latest development in The Shark’s career. (Darnit, I just remembered that his nickname is Shark. Samardzija’s, not Extra P’s. That and Greg Norman’s success at the British Open last weekend should have been the perfect recipe for an opening line about it being “a good week for sharks” or something equally lame. Oh well, not going back to change it now. You’ll just have to deal with my usual lameness.)

Samardzija, who was drafted by the Cubs in the fifth round of the 2006 draft, was called up to replace Kerry Wood and his blistered finger on the roster. Although used primarily as a starter in the minor leagues, he could make his major league debut out of the bullpen as early as this afternoon against the Florida Marlins.

The Z-meter tracks the story arcs of 25 top prospects (or players we just like) on their way to the bigs. It is named after current Washington Nationals star Ryan Zimmerman, who made the transition from anchoring the University of Virginia to starring in MLB in one year.

Injuries and All-Star breaks have slowed down the Z-Meter this week. Four prospects haven’t picked up stats due to ouchies, and several others are taking breaks to play in league All-Star games, or the Futures Game. Still, some continue to amaze. Pitchers David Price and Jhoulys Chacin make this look easy, mowing down batters before and after promotions as if nothing had changed. Jeff Samardzija, on the other hand, struggled a bit in AA, but is making a great case for himself in Iowa. Biscuit Wade Davis has had a sub 2.00-ERA in his last couple of games, so he gets a red line as well.

Matt LaPorta seems to be playing even better since he moved from Huntsville to Akron. Simply amazing.

Let’s see who else is hot this week:

The top level. These prospects are in AAA in the prime of their youth, and ready for the call that will change their lives.

The Z-meter tracks the story arcs of 25 top prospects (or players we just like) on their way to the bigs. It is named after current Washington Nationals star Ryan Zimmerman, who made the transition from anchoring the University of Virginia to starring in MLB in one year.

Trading season officially began this week, as Huntsville Stars star Matt LaPorta was shipped out in a trade that landed C.C. Sabathia in Milwaukee. Fortunately, my man Joe Koshansky moved up to the bigs and is taking the place of an injured Todd Helton, which made room for another Huntsville hitter, shortstop Alcides “Matt” Escobar. As you can see, Alcides is super-hot as well, and belongs here.

On the other hand, as of this writing, Matt LaPorta had yet to take any cuts as an Akron Aero, as a thunderstorm swept through on the night of his expected debut. We’ll keep an eye out for his Cleveland-era stats.

Let’s see who else is hot this week:

The top level. These prospects are in AAA in the prime of their youth, and ready for the call that will change their lives.